What to expect in a planning and design engagement, from first call to recommendation.

The starting point is a phone or video call. Use the contact form and we'll reach out to schedule. If you're already working with a financial advisor or attorney, they're welcome on the call. It's often easiest to talk it through together.

The call is short and structured: a few questions about what you're trying to accomplish, what assets are involved, and what conversations you've already had with your financial advisor, attorney, or family. By the end, we'll tell you whether we believe a charitable trust is a good fit and whether we're the right firm.

If a charitable trust isn't the right answer, or if we're not the right firm, we'll say so. If we know a better fit, we'll try to provide a referral. There's no obligation, no fee, and no follow-up sales pressure.

If we both think the engagement makes sense, we send you a short scope memo within a week of the call. The memo covers:

• What we'd do, in plain language
• What's specifically out of scope
• The deliverables you'll receive at the end
• The timeline (typically 2-6 weeks for a planning engagement)
• The fee - fixed where possible, with a clear estimate where not

Once we agree, you'll receive a formal engagement letter to sign electronically. Then we begin.

For a planning engagement, this is when we model your options. Side by side, with your real numbers, across a few different time horizons, laid out so they're easy to compare. We almost always turn that into a visual - the money flow and the economics on a single page - so the tradeoffs are clear at a glance instead of buried in a spreadsheet.

We coordinate and collaborate with you and the other involved professionals as appropriate. Scope can be adjusted if something changes.

The deliverable is a written memo with supporting schedules that explains what we recommend and why. One preferred recommendation, reasonable alternatives, and the assumptions that drove the analysis - paired with the visual so you can see the tradeoffs at a glance. Everything in plain language; technical terms defined when used.

If a referring advisor or attorney is involved, they receive the same memo. We walk you through the recommendation in a follow-up conversation. We want to ensure everyone agrees with what we're recommending and why, because others may be aware of specifics of yours that we're not.

At this point you decide. We don't push.

After the recommendation, one of three things happens:

• You proceed with our recommendation. If it's a trust, we coordinate with your attorney on drafting the trust instrument and the initial funding mechanics. We also finalize the gift calculations and initial unitrust payments. The engagement closes; if you'd like us to administer the trust going forward, a separate annual engagement begins.
• You proceed with one of the alternatives. Same thing - we coordinate with whoever's executing.
• You decide not to proceed at all. That's also fine - no hard feelings and no pressure. You've got a written record of the analysis and a clear picture of why now wasn't the right time.

We quote fixed fees on planning engagements wherever possible, scaled to the complexity of the analysis. You'll have the fee in writing in the scope memo before any billable work begins.

For annual engagements - trust administration, personal tax preparation - the fee is a fixed annual amount agreed at engagement. It does not change mid-year without a conversation.

We don't bill for the introductory call, and we don't charge for unproductive meetings, calendar coordination, or back-and-forth that should have been handled inside our fee.